The past 30 years, the present and the future: questions to ask ourselves

1979

Bellême and Goring are twinned

Mrs Thatcher becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain

Valery Giscard D’Estaing is President of France

First walkman sold

Lord Mountbatten is assassinated by the IRA

Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran from exile in France

USSR invades Afghanistan

China invades North Vietnam

Three Mile Island nuclear power plant leak

Nottingham Forest wins European Cup

President Hasan al-Bakr replaced by Sadaam Hussein in Iraq

23 dead in tsunami in Nice

One child policy imposed in China

Launch of Ariane I

Superman the Movie

Prices

Average UK house £13,650

Petrol 5 litres 79p

Inflation 17% p.a.

Interest rates 12.5%

1980- 2008

1980: Bellême and Stühlingen are twinned

End of the cold war, fall of the Berlin wall, end of the Soviet Union

Re-unification of Germany 1990

Nelson Mandela freed

Personal Computers

Economic liberalism

George Bush X 2

Iraq war X 2

11 September 2001

Tony Blair and New Labour

President Sarkozy

Internet

Global warming and the green movement

2009

We live in what the Chinese call “interesting times” and we share the same problems and the same pleasures, if not always at the same time or with the same solutions

The big questions

The future of the planet for example...

What are our solutions – recycling, clean energy, organic farming?

Employment – and unemployment

The financial crisis

Education – boys and study, discipline, foreign languages, training

Rural life in our times

Small businesses v. supermarkets

Public transport in rural areas

Post offices, doctors, dentists, libraries

The Differences

Population – Bellême 1624 h, Goring 4000 h.

Law and order – Bellême – gendarmerie, police municipale; Goring a PCSO

Administration:  Bellême – mairie with 22 employees, annual revenue budget of €1,646,000; Goring 1 part time employee; annual revenue budget of £99,000

Tourism: Bellême tourist office Goring pt. Information office, staffed by volunteers

Education – Bellême 2 primary schools, 1 secondary school, Goring 1 primary school

Health – Bellême – hospital;   5 Doctors;   2 pharmacies, 3 Dentists.

Goring: Health centre with 4 doctors; 2 dentists; 1 dispensing chemist with pharmacist

The European Union – what role does it have to play in the above?

What have been its main effects on our two communities, for example, Human Rights, Health and Safety, working week etc etc.

VA April 2009